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PLANNED PARENTHOOD TAKES ON ACA OUTREACH — The women’s health organization is diving into a new area of education, not without its own controversy: Obamacare. Planned Parenthood’s health clinics, which see about 3 million patients a year, will be promoting the health law and informing patients about its benefits, and some are even applying to become government-funded “navigators” to help people enroll in coverage. Guess who has a problem with that? “The navigator grants would further enable Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in America, to continue its misuse of taxpayer dollars to [supplement] their big abortion business,” said Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.), who wants to scrub the $54 million navigator program altogether. But Planned Parenthood sees itself as an obvious information hub for the health care law. Many of its patients use Planned Parenthood clinics as their primary point of care, almost all are under 40 and about half don’t have insurance. http://politi.co/17pklp2

Happy Thursday and welcome to PULSE, where we should probably step up our preparation for the apocalypse. As Buzzfeed pointed out yesterday, a Fox News host actually fact-checked Sarah Palin’s bogus Obamacare claims (http://bit.ly/17npZrF). The end must be near.

“I just want your extra time and your … PULSE”

EXPANSION DEAD IN MAINE, FOR NOW – House Democrats last night fell just short of overriding Gov. Paul LePage’s veto of a Medicaid expansion bill, virtually killing any chance of opting into the expansion before 2014. Expansion supporters had spent the past week trying to flip enough Republicans in the Democratic-controlled House to defeat the LePage veto, but they missed out by three votes, according to the Portland Press Herald. LePage, who vetoed the expansion twice this year, has said that he needs more time to negotiate a deal with the feds. But expansion supporters are skeptical of the governor’s actual interest. The Press Herald story: http://bit.ly/19SWKgl

DME COMPANIES GO TO COURT TO BLOCK BIDDING — TwoDME participants filed a lawsuit late yesterday with hopes of blocking the July 1 expansion of the DME competitive bidding program because of what they call serious licensing irregularities. The American Association for Homecare and Home Mediservice Inc., of Maryland, argue that CMS violated program rules by allowing providers without the right local licenses to operate and win DME contracts. "The Secretary's failure to reject CBP bids from bidders to provide DME in States where bidders did not, as of May 1, 2012, have all required State and local licenses, was unlawful under the Secretary's rules and other authority," the lawsuit says. CMS acknowledged this month that about 30 providers in Tennessee were not properly licensed in the state and voided the contracts. The suit was filed against HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in D.C. District Court.

FIRST IN PULSE: TO FIGHT OBESITY, GROUPS SAY CONSERVE LAND: Major public health groups, for what they say is the first time, are linking the conservation of public lands to the fight against childhood obesity. The groups — which include the American Heart Association, the NAACP and more — are calling on First Lady Michelle Obama to bring a major conservation fund under her Let’s Move initiative. The Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is the primary federal funding source for national parks, also provides matching grants for local parks and playgrounds. “[A] portion of LWCF money provides much-needed resources for rural and urban communities looking to combat childhood obesity by increasing the number of safe places for kids to walk and play outside,” the groups wrote to the first lady and Interior Secretary Sally Jewell last night. The letter: http://politico.pro/103hhtd

MICHIGAN SENATE STILL THINKING OVER EXPANSION – The Senate, expected to recess for the summer this week, still hasn’t taken up the House bill expanding the state’s Medicaid program. The ongoing delay prompted Republican Gov. Rick Snyder to cut short his trade trip to Israel so he could be back home this morning to lobby for the bill. The Senate Republican leader says he won’t bring up the bill for a vote unless more than half the caucus supports it. More from MLive: http://bit.ly/11oziD0.

** A message from PwC's Health Research Institute: HRI regulatory spotlight: Proposed DSH cuts raise concerns especially among public hospitals. Hospitals that treat a large number of the nation’s uninsured are concerned they could lose federal payments for uncompensated care under back-to-back proposed rules released by CMS this spring, http://pwc.to/16e1Hwi. **

HELP REPUBLICANS QUESTION FDA’S ACA OUTREACH – In the latest installment of the Obamacare marketing wars, Senate HELP Committee Republicans are demanding that the FDA explain what authority it has to promote the health care law. “On June 3, 2013, the FDA sent a notice to families, individuals, small businesses and clinicians promoting insurance market changes in the new health care law,” the GOP lawmakers wrote to FDA chief Margaret Hamburg on Wednesday. “The upcoming enrollment period and insurance coverage availability under the new law appear to be outside of your agency’s mission to approve and regulate life-saving medical products in a timely manner and keeping our food supply safe.” The letter: http://politico.pro/14jkep5

THOMPSON’S DRUG COMPOUNDING GROUP HIRES BGR – We told you yesterday that former HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson and public health expert Sarah Sellers launched the Working Group on Pharmaceutical Safety to advocate for tougher FDA oversight of large-scale compounders. Our friends at POLITICO Influence later reported yesterday that the new group hired BGR’s Robert Wood and Ryan Long on a lobbying contract. Wood was a top Thompson aide when he served as Wisconsin governor and HHS secretary, and Long is a former House Energy and Commerce Committee staffer who worked on food and drug issues.

REPORT: $200B IN HEALTH CARE WASTE– A new report out yesterday found $200 billion in avoidable costs are spent each year in the health care system as a result of patients and providers not using medicines responsibly. That adds up to 8 percent of total annual health care expenditures, according to the IMS Institute for Healthcare study. “Those avoidable costs could pay for the healthcare of more than 24 million currently uninsured U.S. citizens,” Murray Aitken, executive director, IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics, said in a statement. The study: http://bit.ly/11OWib1

CMS ALLOWS STATES TO TINKER WITH EXCHANGE APPLICATIONS – The agency guidance issued yesterday outlines how federal exchange states could alter the model single, streamlined application for the exchange and other coverage programs. CMS notes that many states have shown interest in using a single application to cover multiple benefit programs, such as SNAP. The agency said it will allow the approach, as long as the state collects enough information to determine eligibility for all insurance affordability programs and that it gives applicants the chance to file a health care-only application. The guidance: http://bit.ly/11ZVanX

BIPARTISAN DUO BACKS STEM CELL BILL – Reps. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) yesterday introduced a bill supporting embryonic stem cell research and requiring the NIH to periodically review its guidelines for research. The stem cell debate sparked some heated political debate during President George W. Bush’s administration, and advocates are hoping that’s a thing of the past. “This bill would finally establish a stable political landscape, providing certainty to researchers, patients and industry so that meritorious stem cell research can continue and flourish, under rigorous ethical oversight,” said Bernard Siegel, spokesman for the Stem Cell Action Coalition, in a statement.

BALLOT PUSH STARTS IN ARIZONA – Opponents of the Arizona Medicaid expansion filed formal paperwork yesterday to get on the ballot in 2014, the Arizona Republic reports. The group has until Sept. 11 to collect 86,405 legit signatures, and if they do so, that’s enough to put the expansion on hold until November 2014. But Gov. Jan Brewer’s office would be sure to mount a legal challenge if it gets enough signatures. The Republic story: http://bit.ly/16Lx0yD

WHAT WE’RE READING, by Abby McIntyre

Labor unions are amping up their efforts to organize home health care workers, The Wall Street Journal reports: http://on.wsj.com/11Nj1De

Infectious disease experts say the Coronavirus hitting the Middle East could be more deadly than SARS, The Washington Post reports: http://wapo.st/14jkKn3

Slate has a first-person account from a nurse who moved from the ER to hospice and got a new outlook on life and death: http://slate.me/15iXO6n

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed David Rivkin and Elizabeth Foley revive “death panel” critiques against the IPAB, notably citing HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’s refusal to directly intervene in the case of Sarah Murnaghan as an example of how “life-and-death medical decisions have already been usurped by government bureaucrats”: http://on.wsj.com/12c3zR6

Over at The Atlantic, physician and behavioral scientist Peter Ubel discusses the problem of sleep deprivation in hospitals - in part based on his own experience — and suggests ways hospitals could let their patients catch more of those valuable Z’s they need to recover: http://bit.ly/13Tw3Dm

Those “perks” showered on employees at trendy startups come with a high caloric price tag. The Times: http://nyti.ms/17oeEaP

The Washington Post has a piece on a program that gets seniors with dementia drumming to express themselves and connect with others: http://wapo.st/14ju9Lp

The team doctor for the NFL’s San Diego Chargers quit after two local hospitals cut him off from performing surgeries, citing concerns over the quality of care and his alcohol consumption, USA Today reports: http://usat.ly/16hxxHM

CORRECTION: A previous version of Pulse incorrectly listed groups that signed on to a letter linking the conservation of public lands to the fight against childhood obesity. The American Academy of Pediatrics ultimately decided to opt out of the letter and did not sign it.

** PwC's Health Research Institute Regulatory Center is a group of seasoned professionals who analyze legislative and regulatory policy with an eye towards how public policy impacts the business of healthcare. Our weekly Insights report serves as a vital resource for executive decision makers who must navigate the changes that lie ahead. Register to receive our Weekly Insights, http://pwc.to/13XNKR0. **